What have I been making for Christmas?

I have been a busy bee making lots of lovely handmade things for Christmas, I can't say who they are for as that would spoil the surprise,

Love this fabric, I love the colours so much I made myself a pair of curtains for my dining room with it, I lined them in calico to keep the cold out.

These little mushroom brooches I made one for myself and the green one for my friend http://alovelylittledeer.blogspot.co.uk/ I have already given it to her so I can reveal it!

Which ever one is left out of these unique creatures ( my work colleague/friend calls them freaks :( ) will be going to a special nephew, they are all sitting on a shelf at our shop waiting for new homes, the large one on the left is Peanut

These kits (only 2 left now) will be going in the craft prize basket when we do craft bingo at our Christmas party on Friday. We have invited all the ladies who have been to our craft workshops since we opened in August to come to a Christmas party where we will have food, drink, make some crafty items and have craft bingo! I can't wait. We then break up for our Christmas holidays, it will be nice to spend time at home but I think I will miss the shop, we meet so many lovely people and have a real good laugh at work.

What have you been making this year?

Craft workshop/ Knitting corsets

Who's coming along to my workshop this Saturday at our wonderful shop in Blackpool, come along to our lovely homely workshop room, enjoy tea/coffee out of vintage china cups, eat delicious home baked cakes and learn to knit and sew and embellish a one off gorgeous creative garment. Please share with any lovely folk who could be interested xxx

Eclectic, Dotty's Delightful Emporium and Handmade Heaven present a vast array of furniture , vintage and retro curios, homeware, vintage clothing

I would like to welcome you to our new and different shopping centre, on the ground floor is Eclectic, selling all sorts of furniture from different era's and different styles, items for the home, collectables and antiques, there is an onsight makeover basement to where unloved furniture will be transformed into gorgeous new pieces. Commissions will be welcomed.

On the first floor is Dotty's Delightful Emporium selling all sorts of vintage, retro, unusual and hard to find items, art, vinyl, furniture, homewares and more. There is also the clothing den, rails upon rails of wonderful vintage clothes for men and women from different local vintage businesses, you will be spoilt for choice. There will be a 'wants' book too, in case you need a certain item sourcing. Tea and coffee in fine china will be provided for customers.

On the second floor you will find Handmade Heaven, a wonderful attic filled with handmade delights and glorious haberdashery, there will be various craft classes held including felting, hand embroidery, dress making, toy making and more, one to one sewing tutorials from how to use your machine and basics to more advanced sewing, stitch and bitch on Wednesdays, evening classes and fabulous fabric.Our shop is at 277 Church street, Blackpool, FY1 3PB. 

tri monthly catch up!!

Yes, I know I've not posted again for ages, my poor readers I am terribly sorry, life just gets in the way and trying to keep up with facebook, instagram, twitter, shop, life, mum duties, fair organising, looking after pets, home and garden, blah blah takes so much time my poor blog gets left out.
I have been busy working at my shop since my shop partner dropped out, I nearly closed down but things have picked up and for the moment I'm staying open, its pretty hard work being there and away from the family as I miss them loads but on the upside I have a sewing room so I can create whilst I'm there, I'm currently working on a new range of Dotty Wear, I can't wait for it to be finished so I can share it.

I'm also busy organising another vintage and handmade fair for June, I have a smaller outdoors/indoors one at Catforth village hall on June 2nd and the large venue of the winter gardens on June 29th - 30th.

I have other ideas and things in the pipeline too but sometimes it all seems to much, some days I would love to potter around the gardens, read a book or just watch romantic films without the constant guilt feeling that I should be doing something else, being self employed is blumming hard work sometimes, theres ever really a day off as such until your rather rich but then the bigger you become the more demands are put on you. Any way I'm so grateful for all the opportunities given to me and I do love having so many things to do, I'm not moaning about it just expressing myself. Have you got any tips for me to time manage more effectively?

Can I share this too, I have just read a blog post on Galleries, studios, theatre and it is so apt, I could of written it myself! do you know I could of written this myself, its so wonderful that she shared these thoughts because she is right we do fake it a lot, I think if more of us opened up then less of us would feel like we have to pretend. x